


Happy Endings

by CorsetJinx



Category: Drag-On Dragoon | Drakengard
Genre: Game Spoilers, Gen, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 18:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7372957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorsetJinx/pseuds/CorsetJinx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Such things as happiness lie within the eye of the beholder. Intoners are no different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Intoner of Desire

**Five**

She wakes earlier than her norm, relishing the sound of the waves that filters in from the high windows that line her room. Sunlight pours in unhindered, dappling the stone of her room’s floor and walls with colors stolen from the diaphanous silks made to pass for curtains. Already the air is heavy with humidity and promises to stick to her skin like a damp veil.

Ditto will complain about it, as he always does.

Five takes her pleasure in the feeling of it, how the salty air fills her lungs if she breathes just deep enough. Enjoys the sensation of silk on her long legs as she slowly fans out her limbs in a stretch, arching her back to lift her heavy bust. The pillows around her are pudgy things, tasseled and not, and she rolls herself onto one as she languidly turns onto her side.

A wealth of cloth easily spotted from her wardrobe and dressing chambers easily catches her eye - silks, velvet, lace and satin, all colors of the rainbow and much else besides. All of them hers, meant to hug her curves and caress her skin.

Except for one. A short, almost scandalous gown of white - something one might almost call modest if it weren’t for the fact that, when worn, it would provide only the barest modicum of coverage over a person’s nudity. The sheer quality of the airy fabric wouldn’t be much help either.

Five felt herself smile as she looked at it, slowly trailing gold-green eyes over to the one the ensemble was meant for. The second figure in her luxurious bed, pale and faintly shivering despite the muggy heat, long strands of white hair messily framing a woman’s face.

As though sensing her stare, Zero’s single eye cracked open to glare at her from under soft lashes.

Five grinned back, wide and hungry.


	2. Intoner of Justice

**Four**

For all intents and purposes she was determined to find the mission a success, no matter what inane babble Decadus muttered when he thought she wasn’t listening. Her boots touched the stones of the Cathedral’s floor with authority, each _‘clack’_ announcing her presence as though she might have shouted into the vast hall. It didn’t matter that the room was mostly empty or that she could still hear faint sounds of struggle from her prize.

All that mattered was the slim figure at the head of the massive chamber, her beloved sister sitting on the throne.

One’s red eyes watched over her party’s approach with all the solemn composure of a queen, her expression set in a mask of neutrality as Four stopped before the dais of her authority. The Ruler of the Land of Mountains curtsied rather than bowed as Decadus did, her senses alight with the feeling of victory. Of finally, finally being the one in the right - of being worthy, more than worthy, of recognition.

“I bring you a present, One.” Four announces as she straightens, the temptation to sing-song the words almost unbearable. Her giddiness forms a crack in her veneer of professionalism, a giggle stifled at the back of her throat. With her gauntlet Four gestures to the bound woman fighting to stay upright behind her, uncaring of the hiss of her eldest sister’s breath. “Finally, after all the trouble she’s caused, we can set our dear sister to rights.”

She watches One’s eyes slide to her gift, her offering, her success and thinks that it must be surprised joy that flickers over the elder’s face. Four turns just enough to regard her catch from over the rise of her shoulder, her smile turning sharp as she looks over the one who had tormented her sister so.

Zero had protested a bath, but she had seen to it that the fallen Intoner had received one anyway. It would have been unthinkable to present her to One otherwise. A single pink eye glared hatefully at them, at her, and it still hurt Four a little to think that she had fallen so far from the kind, loving sister that had protected Four when she was younger.

Without her arms however, Zero couldn’t put up much of a fight anymore. Where once she had been able to strike blows like cannon-fire she was now confined to simply standing and spitting curses - or would have, if Four hadn’t removed her tongue.

She supposed it was a pity that her men hadn’t been able to find much of the dragon’s body after Amaros had shot it from the sky - the skull alone would have made a lovely present as well.

Dismissing the eldest Intoner with a measured toss of her brunette head Four turned her attention back to One, folding her hands before her as she stood straight - beaming in the bloody light of Cathedral City’s early evening.

For once she had done what no one else could. She was in the _right_.


	3. Intoner of Curiosity

**Three**

She had so much work to do. Projects, experiments, new ideas unfurling as she applied her time and energy to what happened to be before her. Always, there was the snick of her scissors - cutting through fabric, flesh, or bone. Sometimes all three at once. They made the loveliest sound. A soft, precise ‘snick’.

And her dolls… She had plenty of time to spend with her dolls.

Porcelain and bone, spirit and substance more than flesh. Her cute, beloved dolls.

Hours filtered past in a haze of steady work, broken only by those times when she was too tired to continue. Occasionally she would stop, lift her head and look about the room. Sometimes her view would be obscured by long purple tresses and she might notice the weight of dragging her long hair around.

It kept growing even if she cut it, filling up the room by one means or another.

She cut it, if she remembered.

But her attention always strayed to other things. How to make new children, perfect children - a masterpiece fit to outshine those One had ordered her to destroy a year ago, left to rampage in all parts of the world.

Sometimes, her eye would hurt.

Three didn’t mind. It couldn’t take her attention off her work anyway.


	4. Intoner of Mercy

**Two**

She wakes up to the feeling of her lover’s arms around her and his knees pressing gently into her own. They’re about the same height, give or take, and she doesn’t mind that he’s tucked his face into the crook of her neck. The ghost of his breath tickles her skin and sends pleasant chills down her back. It makes her want to giggle.

Two covers one of his hands with her own, feels herself grin as she strokes the back of his fingers with the tips of hers. His twitch, tickling her belly, and she does giggle that time.

It’s cool for now, which tells her that it must be only a little past sunrise in the Land of Sands. Soon enough the heat would settle in and she would have to start her day. There weren’t any meetings scheduled, or at least not ones she could remember. But that didn’t mean that she could spend the whole day idle.

After all, she needed -

She -

She needed to -

The children -

Her children -

They needed -

\- her -

She had -

“Lady Two.” Cent’s voice breaks through the thought she couldn’t quite seem to catch, still heavy with sleep. He curls around her just the way she likes, chest flush against her back and comfortably warm. Knowingly or not, his lips press a kiss to the back of her neck.

It makes her shiver, but in a good way.

Two smiles slowly and lets her head lull back, forgetting the thought she couldn’t quite seem to finish. Relaxing back into the arms of the man she loved, the Intoner of Mercy decides to allow herself a few more minutes of bliss.


	5. Intoner of Logic

**One**

Her body aches to a degree she hasn’t felt since the very beginning, the days when she and her sisters raised their weapons against the Lords of the Lands and strove to bring peace to the world. It keeps her mind from what lies behind her only for an instant - memories carefully picked over for missed details now seeming frayed at the edges, lacking color after long exposure to the light.

The scent of blood is heavy to her nose. Inescapable for the moment, as it is all around her - dragon and Intoner, sister and sister.

She almost wants to find it strange that it doesn’t really feel like a victory at all.

Almost.

One presses a hand to the stone of the wall behind her throne and commands the seal to fade with a trace of her Song. It responds almost too quickly for her liking, all the power she had taken from the others. From her sisters.

From Zero.

It’s pleasantly cool in the passageway leading to what she seeks, though the dust irritates her nose. Each step up she can feel her legs protest, each movement drawing the strings of her body tight against itself. One thinks, not without a trace of bitterness, that it might be a good thing Gabriella isn’t around to see her like this.

Another thing she will have to forgive herself for, in the end - the loss of her dearest friend.

One avoids the door. Doesn’t knock on its wooden surface or give any indication that she is near to the one that waits beyond. Her goal is the wall adjacent, a gap in the brick that came from something being thrust between the stone and mortar over and over and over.

Getting there is the easy part, she finds.

Standing absolutely still and waiting is the challenge.

Her mind runs in circles, grasping at gossamer threads. Memories, plans, half-dreamt fantasies. Worst of all - questions. She doesn’t know if it is the Flower or her own mind that keeps bringing up the thought, but it persists nonetheless. She could leave, walk away and never return to Cathedral City. Take the one behind her, in the hidden room, with her - just as she had after he was born.

She didn’t have to do this. The world was hardly saved, after all. Zero’s path of carnage had simply torn apart the sutures roughly holding the world together, exposing festering wounds and healing progress alike.

What was to stop something from going amiss, should she go through with her fail-safe?

What if, even after all she’d planned and done, there was no forgiveness to be found?

Her ears pick up the sound of a footstep, the stone separating her from the room hidden from prying eyes doing nothing to muffle the noise.

It seems, she thinks, that this decision will be made for her as well.

One draws herself up and swallows against the urge to use her Song. She reminds herself of why she had planned this. Reminds herself of the truth, ugly and pestilent as it is - spawned from the seeds of a rotting flower.

The Intoners have to die in order for the world to be saved.

Every.

Single.

_One._


	6. Singularity - The Savage Intoner

**_Zero_ **

In the frayed awareness she still possesses, she thinks she can hear Mikhail crying. It’s a small sound now where it used to drown out the world, back when she had been smaller than him and he’d have a nightmare behind her shitty cottage.

She thinks she might miss it, for all it could still make her angry.

Fucking crybaby dragon. Too different from Michael, too….

Who was she kidding? Of course she would miss him. Her body is crumbling, turning to ash, to dust… and she’s leaving him all alone.

That could be her one regret, if she had to keep anything from this rotten joke of a life.

“Hey. Quit crying already.”

He sniffles, she can hear it. Part of her is glad she cannot see it.

“It’s going to be okay.” She says, soft as she’s ever spoken to him.

“Zero… you big dummy….”


End file.
